State of The World's Plants 2017

Created: 18 May 2017Category: David Eccles

Today was the second annual launch of Kew’s State of the World’s Plants report (https://stateoftheworldsplants.com). The launch was marked yesterday with a very special first user, HRH Prince Charles at the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew. The annual report is a reliable tool for policymakers, scientists and the public to plot trends in the plant world.

Our role has been to build on their work in 2016 to bring the report to life through data visualisations, maps and interactive data. Each of the 12 chapters of the written report has been illustrated through a custom-built interactive, through which users can explore the data and map trends, and see for themselves the effects on the world’s plants from issues such as climate change, extinction, new discoveries and land coverage.

Project lead at Numiko, James Hyatt said: “Working with the team at Kew Science has been a real pleasure and I am incredibly proud of what we have delivered together. We started with a great foundation from 2016 so the first challenge was to build on that. We have scaled to cover multiple years and improved the experience on mobile and tablet. We added a new overlay to better represent the data across chapters and ensure a great experience for users on all devices.

“We were also able given the opportunity to work with Carnegie Mellon Create Lab who developed two chapters in partnership with Kew. Collaboration is key to delivering a project of this complexity and from start to finish we’ve felt unified in our ambition to deliver a world class experience.”

We enjoy releasing work that earns global recognition. Last year’s State Of The Worlds Plants was nominated for a Webby Award, alongside NASA and BBC Earth. This year’s launch has already received considerable press attention, both in the UK and abroad.